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Man killed in Lyman County crash from Pukwana

LOWER BRULE—Authorities Tuesday released the name of a Pukwana man who was killed in a one-vehicle early-morning crash last Thursday.

Matthew Denke, 27, sustained fatal injuries in the crash, which occurred on the Lower Brule Reservation and 20 miles northeast of Kennebec on BIA Highway 10, according to the South Dakota Department of Public Safety.

Denke was a passenger in a 2005 Chrysler 300 driven by 27-year-old Jordan Miller, of Kennebec, who suffered serious, non-life-threatening injuries and was transported by ambulance to the hospital in Chamberlain and later flown to Sioux Falls.

At 4:11 a.m., the car was eastbound and approaching a hill when it crossed the center line, steered to the right and drove off the road, into a ditch. It flipped and landed on its wheels.

Denke was pronounced dead at the scene. Neither he nor Miller was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, and both were ejected from the vehicle.

Charges are pending against Miller, and the South Dakota Highway Patrol is investigating the crash.